Giorgio Armani’s bond with cinema was a lifelong dialogue between fashion and storytelling. Over five decades, the Italian designer redefined how elegance and power were portrayed on screen, lending his touch to more than 200 films.
His journey began in 1980 with American Gigolo, where Richard Gere, dressed in soft-shouldered suits and fluid fabrics, became the icon of a new concept of masculine elegance. Only five years after founding his label, Armani had already revolutionised menswear, turning tailoring into a narrative language.
From Brian De Palma’s The Untouchables to Scorsese’s Goodfellas, Armani clothed gangsters and heroes alike, giving characters a stage presence that transcended performance. He became the silent author of cinematic archetypes: Bruce Wayne’s dual identity in The Dark Knight, Leonardo DiCaprio’s excess in The Wolf of Wall Street, Brad Pitt’s audacious ivory tuxedo in Inglourious Basterds, and Jodie Foster’s chilling authority in Elysium.
From his collaboration with Bernardo Bertolucci on The Sheltering Sky to his ties with directors such as Giuseppe Tornatore and Paolo Sorrentino, Italian cinema too benefited from the touch of Hollywood’s trusted couturier. However, Giorgio Armani’s legacy extended beyond fashion: many artists, intellectuals and business leaders consider him an inspirational figure. The esteemed Italian actor Stefano Accorsi mentioned him in his autobiography, describing him as a figure always attentive and interested in everything happening in society and in the evolution of culture.
This explains why Armani’s costumes were never ornamental. They were characters in themselves: tools of seduction, symbols of authority, emblems of corruption or grace. With his passing at 91, the cinema loses not just a designer, but a co-narrator of its most iconic stories.
Photo credits: Pexels
